100 Numbered copies

£30 plus shipping

190 pages. Approx. dimensions 160mm wide, 215mm tall. Handbound at Tangerine Press using heavy duty acid-free boards, conservation glue and hemp cord; acid-free text paper; red cloth; front cover artwork embossed in black. Text set in Baskerville Old Face. ISBN: 978-0-9553402-1-5

Hahnemuhle black endpapers; natural white acid-free text paper; colour title page.

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26 Lettered/signed copies, inc. variant edition

£*** plus shipping

190 pages. Approx. dimensions 160mm wide, 215mm tall. Handbound at Tangerine Press using heavy duty acid-free boards, conservation glue and hemp cord; red cloth; front cover artwork embossed in black; colour title page with a different design to numbered copies. Text set in Baskerville Old Face. ISBN: 978-0-9553402-1-5

The letter's of the poet's surname are slipcased (ie. only 7 available). Lettered, lettered/slipcased copies include a tipped in handsewn pamphlet with a poem by Ruthie Wantling, as well as a broadside of an unpublished Wm. Wantling letter (early 1974 - reproduced with kind permission from Trevor Reeves).

19 Lettered copies

Fully bound in red cloth; Canson Mi-Teintes poppy red endpapers; natural white acid-free text paper; colour title page with a different design to numbered copies. Includes poetry broadside. Includes handsewn pamphlet with the poem 'Roses' by Ruthie Wantling.

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7 Lettered/slipcased copies

Fully bound in red cloth; Canson Mi-Teintes poppy red endpapers; natural white acid-free text paper; colour title page with a different design to numbered copies. Custom slipcase bound in red cloth. Includes handsewn pamphlet with the poem 'Roses' by Ruthie Wantling.

Also a broadside of an unpublished Wm. Wantling letter dating from early 1974 and is reproduced with kind permission from Trevor Reeves.

The letters W, A, N, T, L, I and G are slipcased.

SOLD OUT

"[Only in the Sun] is a beautiful production. It makes me think of the wonderful books John Martin published at Black Sparrow Press. I am sure it will be much sought after by collectors in years to come and, more importantly, it will stand as a record of a man's life and work, for readers to discover long after we are all dead and gone, which is really the most magical thing about writing and publishing, I think."
— Howard Sounes, author of the highly acclaimed Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life

William Wantling (1933-74) was a veteran of the Korean War and a heroin addict who spent five and a half years in San Quentin Prison, where he first taught himself to write. Upon his release in 1963, under the G.I.Bill, he entered higher education, obtaining a BA and MA in English Literature. A contemporary of Charles Bukowski – with whom he had an unusual and ultimately destructive friendship – Wantling was widely published in the vibrant US poetry scene of the 1960s and 70s, including an appearance in the twelfth edition of the prestigious Penguin Modern Poets series. Whilst maintaining a high profile in the independent press scene, important literary figures such as Edward Lucie-Smith, Walter Lowenfels and Cyril Connolly regularly supported and promoted his work. Christopher Logue, writing in the Times Literary Supplement in December 1967, declared Wantling’s collection The Awakening his recommended book of the year. Wantling was a university lecturer when he died of heart failure on May 2nd 1974, aged 40 years.